BevNET is delighted to announce that KeVita co-founder and CEO Bill Moses will be presenting a case study on the transition from natural and specialty to mainstream supermarket channels during the BevNET Live event taking place on June 4 and 5 in Manhattan.

KeVita Inc., maker of KeVita sparkling probiotic drink, has become one of the fastest-growing beverage companies on the market by mixing great taste and on-trend functionality and flavor with careful sales execution in key channels. Eight of the ten KeVita flavors are lightly sweetened with organic stevia.

Earlier this year, KeVita was able to migrate successfully from Whole Foods Market, where it has national placement and executed the bulk of its sales, into Safeway, where it now has an additional 1,400 stores and a strong conventional grocery foothold. The company also attracted attention with a recent $7.3 million investment, led by the private equity firm KarpReilly. KeVita has become widely regarded as one of the functional beverages best able to bridge the gap from the health and wellness movement to the refreshment need state.

The process of migration was carefully planned from the start but nevertheless presented unforeseen challenges; during his presentation, Mr. Moses will discuss the broad swath of challenges that needed to be considered while undertaking the transition, from supply chain and distributor alignment to marketing, merchandising, and pricing considerations. An open discussion of that process is sure to be informative for all audience members who aspire to move beyond a single retail channel.

About Bill Moses

Entrepreneur, businessman and winemaker William Moses has a passion for bringing consumers healthy choices in organic and fermented beverages, which led him to co-found KeVita Inc. with business partner, Chakra Earthsong Levy. KeVita offers its refreshing probiotic drink to its growing following of health-conscious consumers. In addition to leading KeVita, the nation’s second fastest-growing functional beverage brand, Mr. Moses also owns Casa Barranca Winery and Retreat Center, the first certified organic winery and vineyard on California’s Central Coast. Mr. Moses has more than 25 years of Wall Street experience specializing in mergers and acquisitions, as an entrepreneur and angel investor. Always a pioneer in new business ventures, he developed China’s first computerized airline reservation system in the late 1989 and later sold to Soros’ Quantum Fund. Mr. Moses also founded and was CEO of Rnet Interactive which was sold to Liberty Media.

An advocate for charity and the environment, Bill is the recipient of the Ellis Island Gold Medal of Honor for Humanitarian and Business Leadership. He previously served as honorary chairman of Cable Positive. He is Chairman of Opportunity Green, a sustainability conference bringing together the brightest innovators leading the new green economy. Bill lives in beautiful Ojai, California with his wife and three sons.

About BevNET Live

BevNET Live is a two-day forum for beverage entrepreneurs, suppliers, distributors, retailers and investors to gather, speak, exchange ideas through interactive panels and lectures, and enhance their marketing and product development strategies. Attendees can tap the expertise of investment professionals who can help groom them to attract money, business owners with inspiring success stories, and the BevNET.com community, which has spent a decade dedicating itself to careful reporting on the fast-moving beverage industry. More than just a conference, BevNET LIVE includes networking options including the BevNET LIVE Expo, beverage breaks, a cocktail reception and more.